Water leak passenger side A4 Avant

spartacus68

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On my B8.5 A4 Allroad it's developed a water leak on the passenger side footwell. Not impressed. It's got a panoramic sunroof, so I checked the drain holes and ran strummer nylon down the holes, and tried warm water and it runs clear.

I also checked the plenum area in front of the bulkhead. There were a few leaves, but nothing to speak of really. I cleared that out and cleaned the area. I can only access one of the grommets as the other side looks like the brake fluid and brake servo covers the other one.

Strangely the water looks as if it was coming from the glovebox area. I dried it off yesterday and checked this morning (raining last night) and it was wet again.

I also read a couple of posts State-side on problems with the water washed reservoir. I've topped it up and there's no notable loss?

Any suggestions before I start to delve deeper into the dash?
 
Good luck with this, I had the same problem recently and did the same investigations as yourself. Unfortunately In my case it was the actual Sunroof cassette that was leaking.

I would suggest checking up at the top of the A pillars for any signs of the water running down. Possibly removing them and getting a hose on the roof to find the source of the leak.

If it is the sunroof cassette be aware it's a big job (headlining out) if you intend to do it yourself and the cassette alone is over £800 just for the parts.

Hopefully your fault is different from mine but the above is the worse case scenario.


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Thanks for that. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't pay £800 for a sunroof cassette, assuming that's the cause. Damn thing cost me £20k, and I'd rather sell it than throw good money after bad.

I'll check the A-frame pillars. I even thought it could be coming from the windscreen. It's original, so no reason to doubt its integrity. I've seen replacement screens fitted which are far from perfect.
 
Yes it's common for a leak to come from the windscreen if it's been replaced and badly fitted but as you say it's original so highly unlikely to be the cause.

The cassette cost was a sore one to take and to make matters worse the sunroof motor drive gear snapped in two whilst doing the swap and you can't get a replacement gear only a new motor at £300. I've luckily just managed to source a replacement gear on eBay advertised for a merc sunroof.




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I checked into this a little more and there seems to be a recurring fault with the cassette where it connects to the rubber drainage hoses. Can't believe Audi are still doing this considering the well documented problems on the rear wash wipe on all models with detached or leaking connectors.

On my last Audi I glued the connections on the reservoir to the wash wipe to stop future breaks.
 
When we rebuilt mine we sealed these crappy connections up with windscreen sealant to make sure they wouldn't cause any issues. Absolutely crap design!


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When we rebuilt mine we sealed these crappy connections up with windscreen sealant to make sure they wouldn't cause any issues. Absolutely **** design!

How did you eventually determine it was the cassette? The cassette you replaced, could you tell it was damaged, or is it how it's fitted that's key? Any pictures please?

I'm going to try Audi first for response. Car is 2012, full Audi history and under 40k miles.
 
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The cassette is made up of different pieces bonded together. In my case the leak was getting in somewhere on the front driver side where it should have been bonded together and over time the bond had failed.


You would think the simple solution would be to bond it back together but it seems that is far easier than it sounds. The guys who did the replacement with me work for a main dealer Audi body shop and have seen a few of these issues on various different Audi models. In the past they have tried to split and bond together again a leaking cassette and it never worked out. The end solution was a new cassette, that's why in my case I went straight for the new cassette.

To check the cassette I poured water into the drain channel with the sunroof open so that there was a small amour to drain down the drainage tube and then looked inside the car (with the headlining out) and you could see where it was leaking. At the same time I had a leak In the rear passenger side which turned out to be the crappy fitment of the drain tube design, which I resolved with sealing round it with windscreen adhesive.

I've got some pics with the headlining dropped down but nothing close up that would help explain what I mean unfortunately.


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Cheers Gary.

I'm basically pi**ing the wind just now until I get it confirmed its the cassette. My experience of Audi over the years is always worst case scenario. The rarely fix, opting to replace.

Found the part you mention, so I can see it's quite a specialised piece of kit with integral wiring, mechanical running gear, etc. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/sunroof-frame/8k9877049b/

I called Audi today, so there's no outstanding recalls on leaking panoramic sunroofs on the A4 Allroad. Again, I'm assuming it's the sunroof, but I'll do a water test at the weekend to see if I can isolate.

Audi will do a test, regardless of whether I leave it with them to fix for £90 + VAT.

The car has full Audi service history - but that didn't even phase them. If it is the cassette - I wonder if they would repair under goodwill or contribute considering its history, under 5 years old and under 40k miles?

I've used sikaflex in marine applications before - and that stuff basically sticks to any surface, even when wet. Assuming it was obvious on the cassette, a smear of that in the drainage channel would be worth a shot, rather than hauling the whole lot out?

I'll keep you posted.
 
Yes that's the part! Basically the motor for the glass and the motor for the blind attach to it, all the rest is already built in.

The test they do for £90 is to stand with a hose and spray the sunroof to see if any leaks appear. In my case we also tried jacking up the back and sprayed it with water as my driveway has a steep incline. Not exactly £90 worth of work, but again I didn't pay for the privilege.

I would definitely try silkaflex or some other sort of sealant to try and resolve the issue first. The guys that did mine said they had tried that on a q7 but the car kept coming back with the same issue after a couple of weeks. It's definately worth a try.

It's just annoying that you should need to resort to silicone sealing something up on what is supposedly a prestige brand car!

Good luck, hope you sort it.




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Update, and apologies for delay. Given the pretty poor weather lately it's dry as a bone. I cleaned out the plenum chamber with hot soapy water and removed the rubber grommet in the drain on the passenger side completely.
 
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Hi,

I’ve recently bought a 2009 A4 Allroad and have experienced the same issue or water in the passenger footwell.

I cleaned out the leaves and crud from the tray in front of the bulkhead and still had water ingress.

After further investigation, glove box out, fuse box cover off, I tracked the leak back to the a pillar trim .

Reading about known issues with the sunroof or which I have the panoramic one, I took the rubber door seal off and could see the water running down the inside of the a pillar trim where the curtain airbag is located.

I then removed the sun visor and grab handle so I could get under the head liner and see the sunroof drain. Upon pouring a little water down the drain hole I could see where water was gathering at the join between the blue plastic pipe and the rubber joining piece which pushes onto the sunroof outlet.

Removed pipe and joining piece to find the glue had failed causing the leak. A hefty application of some quality silicone sealant left over night to dry and the leak has stopped.

Hope this is useful for others to trace any similar issues.
 

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Update, and apologies for delay. Given the pretty poor weather lately it's dry as a bone. I cleaned out the plenum chamber with hot soapy water and removed the rubber grommet in the drain on the passenger side completely.

Good evening,

Just reading your thread on the leaking sunroof on the Allroad. I have exactly the same on my 2014 A6 Avant which i've had from new and only just developed a leak in the driver's footwell a couple of weeks ago. It's never had any bodywork done and not knowledge of what could have caused this leaking out of the blue. Did you resolve the problem, what was it and what was the fix? Did you have to get a new sunroof cassette as suggested by GaryDe?

So far i've established that its not the sunroof drain off pipes as they're running clear. With roof slid back and the bottom of the drain off tube blocked up with blu-tack, i poured water into the outer sunroof with a jug, filling the tube which held water and no leaking occurred. I repeated for the near side and again no leaking. I removed the blu-tack and poured water into the gutter mid way between the front and rear drain off points (not that i found the rear drains but know they're draining ok through to the rear wheel arches). I noticed water flooding the front gutter behind the wind deflector which immediately leaked into the footwell. Whilst i'm aware that the sunroof should be shut under such conditions and the deflector recoiled, should the water be getting to this inner gutter? I've now placed blu-tack in the c.3mm gap in the sunroof mechanism on the near and off sides where the water was cascading into the secondary gutter so i'll have to see whether this is a cure. Any help on this annoying matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 

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Sounds the same as I had if I understand you properly

I had grease blocking the holes 2/3 the way towards front of sunroof, meaning the water couldn't get to the front drain holes as it was dammed in, so overflowed straight into car both sides and gavewet footwells

Unblocked these and now fine
 
Did you have to get a new sunroof cassette as suggested by GaryDe?

In a word, no. I refuse to shell out £800 on parts, never mind the labour to fix. I was actually tinkering with the car today. I've been in the roof lining more times than a junior doctor doing an internal! I'm taking a different approach and trying to seal from the top using a product called Captain Tolley. It uses capillary action to draw the solution down to fill hairline cracks.

Read this: https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/very-wet-driver-footwell-any-common-suspects.363852/

The sunroof cassette is inherently flawed in its design. Rather than have a sealed unit a bit like a shower tray, Audi in their wisdom took two different materials, the sunroof cassette and the pressed steel or aluminium running gear and joined them using a flexible mastic. It's the mastic solution that's failed allowing water to penetrate.

Think about it, the car is out in all weathers, heat, frost, and rain, so over time the seal fails.

You say the sunroof drains run clear, so do mine. You really need to drop the roof lining to see what's going on. The front drain tubes are push on (yes push on, not sealed in position), so can leak. If you run water into the roof channels you may see it leak here. If it does that's an easy fix.

I'd get plastic sheeting in the foot wells until you resolve. It's amazing just how much water can come in after bad weather. Dry off the footwell, and use gorilla tape to seal it to the area where the water runs down the interior trim.

The A pillar trims are plastic and fabric covered, hence will never show signs of water ingress. The water, wherever it's coming in, drops onto the roof lining then finds the path of least resistance down the A pillar trim and exits as shown.

Let us know how you get on please.
 
I've recently had this problem with my Audi A4 B8 Avant with Panoramic Sunroof. The water was finding its way into both footwells inside passenger side and driver side, dripping down behind the fuse boxes.

I used some strimmer wire and loaded it down into the drain holes to make sure they weren't blocked, flushed with hot soapy water.

Whilst the water was then running clear and through the drainage ports on the ourside of the door frame, I still had water coming into the passenger cabin.

I dropped the pillar and roof lining off at the front (pillar airbags) on each side of the front and managed to gain access to the blue hose-type drain pipe with white connector that connects to the black cassette drainage channels at the top. These were leaking and letting water past, probably because the fit has failed over time. This was the case for both passenger and driver sides front.
The water then runs on the inside of the head lining down through the airbag side pillar liner and past the fuse boxes into the footwells.


For now, I've used some silicon sealant to seal off the connection between white/blue pipe grommet to the black cassette drain port. It's worked on one side and it remains dry for now. Just waiting for the other side silicon to dry.

I also had water in the trunk where the battery sits underneath the spare wheel, so the rear drainage hoses will probably have the same issue.

The fit of the white end grommets from the blue drainage hose to the drainage ports isn't at all tight and I can quite easily see how this would let water through/out, especially if they are clogged.

First port of call for anyone with leakage problems is to use strimmer wire and unblock those hoses, then check out the fit of those white grommets.

IMG 2960
IMG 2959
 
the front and rear drains...

front are inside the doors....

rears are hidden upward from the rear wheel arch...

IMG 2976 drain rear
IMG 2975 rear drain
IMG 2974 drain rear
IMG 2972 drainhole front cu
IMG 2972 drainhole front
 
Having removed the front headline pillars on both driver/passenger side next to the windscreen that hide the airbags, and having used silicon to pair the tube to the sunroof drain section, the leaking into the front foot wells has stopped completely.
Now I have to deal with the leak in the rear drains...
 
I have this same issue on my 2013 B8.5 - the great news is the blue pipe and white connection are very good and no leaks, the bad news is the water ingresses from somewhere around the wind deflector, thought i'd fixed it on saturday as my testing had no water coming in, left the car out in the biblical rain over the weekend, wet footwell again!

Has the wind deflector been an issue for others?
 
I have this same issue on my 2013 B8.5 - the great news is the blue pipe and white connection are very good and no leaks, the bad news is the water ingresses from somewhere around the wind deflector, thought i'd fixed it on saturday as my testing had no water coming in, left the car out in the biblical rain over the weekend, wet footwell again!

Has the wind deflector been an issue for others?

Still dealing with the same thing myself. If I was a betting man, then I'd say it's the sunroof cassette. At this time of year to perform a permanent fix is very difficult unless you have a well-lit and preferably warm garage with plenty space, given you need to have the car doors open to remove interior trim. If you remove the trim, then chances are you'll see water pooling from the cassette (where the plastics join) in front or behind the sunroof drain tube. It drips onto headlining then runs down the A pillar trim then into the foot-well.

As a temporary measure, and this is a bit Heath Robinson, then dry the carpet, then run plastic sheeting under the rubber floor mats on top of the carpet. Use Gorilla tape or similar to provide a seal against the interior trim. If you allow the carpet to keep getting wet, then you're going to be plagued with condensation, possible electric faults, as the sound deadening will literally soak it up.